rob bradford

Jonathan Papelbon. Justin Masterson. Daniel Bard. Now Andrew Miller?

PITTSBURGH -- Alfredo Aceves stopped in his tracks while walking by the media scrum gathered around Andrew Miller after the Red Sox' 4-2 win over the Pirates Sunday afternoon, the 6-foo-t7 pitcher's head rising above the group collecting around him.

"Wow," the reliever said, "he's tall."

Yes, it's time to start noticing Miller. He could, after all, be one of the most important Red Sox players you will see in the season's final three months.

For the Red Sox, a great majority of trade deadline moves have had nothing to do with trades at all. And Miller might offer the latest example of this phenomenon.

People like what they've sampled from Miller thus far, with the latest taste coming in the form of a much-needed six-inning, two-run outing at PNC Park.

“I thought Andrew Miller pitched with a lot of poise,” manager Terry Francona said. “We didn’t make some plays behind him. They tried to bunt, and we didn’t turn that into an out. And he continued to make pitches. I thought it was real encouraging. I was really pleased.”

“He was under control,” said Red Sox catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia. “He was definitely pumped up and wanting to get the team out of this (skid). For him to slow down and pitch like he did was great.”

According to Pitch F/X, he threw a fastball that topped out at 95 mph and averaged just under 93 mph. It was a pitch that he threw 73 times, 53 of which were for strikes.

Miller dealt with adversity, fighting through what could have been a disastrous fifth inning. He had walked pitcher James McDonald to lead off the inning, allowed a single to Garrett Jones, and then watched as Kevin Youkilis' attempt at throwing out the bunting Chase d'Arnaud was a touch too late.

Things only got worse when Andrew McCutchen singled in McDonald to give the Pirates a 2-1 lead. But, fortunately for Miller, Garrett Jones overran the bag at third for the inning's first out, and was followed with a Neil Walker strikeout and Matt Diaz fly out to right.

As his minor league numbers would suggest (7 runs in his last 30 1/3 innings, striking out 30 and walking 7), Miller has passed his fair share of tests this season. But locking down a major league lineup when it counts the most is next-level kind of stuff.

Miller's value of the last week or so hasn't been hard to decipher. He has offered two solid starts, allowing just four earned runs over 11 2/3 innings, with the Red Sox winning both the game he pitched in. The team needed a starter who was going to win, and that's what Miller gave them.

But the assumption is that Clay Buchholz will be returning shortly (perhaps July 4) from his back ailment, and Tim Wakefield has certainly pitched well enough in the starting rotation to suggest his value as a starter is far greater than a middle-inning bullpen commodity.

So where does that leave Miller? Potentially as one of the most important pieces of the Red Sox pennant-drive puzzle, that's where.

There's a reason teams were drooling at the idea of Miller taking his June 15 opt-out. The fashion in which he has pitched certainly would have allowed some pitching-starved contending team to drop the lefty into the middle of its rotation without thinking twice.

The Red Sox' rotation -- at least the heart of it -- appears to be occupied when health is at peak levels. Sure, Miller, if continuing down the path he finds himself on, could wedge his way in among the starters for the stretch drive. And if he did earn that honor, that truly means the 26-year-old has figured things out at a level which would classify him as one of Theo Epstein's best finds ever.

(In case you missed it, the player the Red Sox traded to get Miller, Dustin Richardson, was designated for assignment by the Florida Marlins on June 17, and subsequently scooped up by the Milwaukee Brewers.)

But even if the starting thing doesn't fit this time around, the image that Miller has portrayed thus far sure gives off the same sort of vibe the likes of Papelbon, Masterson and Bard did during their initial forays into the big leagues.

Papelbon, who made his first big league appearance as a starter, would finish the '05 season as the Red Sox' most dependable late-inning reliever, allowing just two hits in four postseason innings.

Masterson also kicked off his Red Sox career by starting his first nine games. But when the playoffs rolled around, the righty had morphed into the Sox most reliable set-up option for Papelbon, pitching in nine postseason games.

And who can forget what Bard became by the conclusion of the '09 campaign, being asked to save the Red Sox season in Game 3 of the American League Division Series. The then-rookie came in with the bases loaded and nobody out in the sixth inning, and the Sox holding a four-run lead. He promptly induced a double play and infield pop-up to end the threat before striking out two in a flawless seventh.

Based on what we've witnessed thus far, it isn't difficult to see Miller get on some sort of similar roll.

"If you asked me to bet on it, I would have probably said the best is me as a reliever," said Miller when asked what he thought his most likely route was when initially contemplating making the Red Sox. "But at the same time, stuff always happens."

Miller wasn't alone in his analysis. The bullpen was the plan all along, with this round of starts proving as a somewhat out-of-nowhere bonus.

"We were going to stretch him out, just because we wanted him to have the repetition, and I think we kind of envisioned him maybe being in the bullpen," Francona said. "But he threw the ball so well the last month that it's kind of hard to not see if a guy can start. You can always send him to the bullpen."

Sure, some changes would have to be made. A good deal of Miller's recent success has been attributed to an altered pregame routine which simulates getting up and down during the course of a game instead of just going out and throwing warm-up tosses. A move to the bullpen would eliminate that strategy.

But for Miller, the former sixth overall pick in the '06 draft, alterations have been part of the deal throughout his often-times rocky professional existence. What's one more?

"I certainly wouldn't be able to do anything close to my routine, but if you ask any of these starters go to the bullpen they wouldn't be able to do their pregame routine like they always do," he said. "But that's part of it. You develop a routine that fits for the bullpen. It's something you have to adjust to."

The way things have been going, when it comes to Miller, it might be the rest of baseball which has the adjusting to do.

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